Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: n. BEDFOKDIA. Neither Mr. Peter Cunningham nor Mr. John Timbs, in their excellent books about London, have done becoming justice to the varied district of Bedfordia. Why not " Bed- fordia ?" It has as much right to have a square for its sponsor as any other region more favoured by patrician homes. Bel- gravia is great in ancestral exclusiveness, and Tyburnia weighty in successful commerce, and Bedfordia is equally important—in its way. . I would define Bedfordia as somewhat freely bounded on the east by the Foundling Hospital, and on the west by that of Middlesex. Northwards, the New-road forms its frontier; and to the south, the rolling tide of Oxford-street prevents its respectability running astray in St. Giles's. Its inhabitants would repudiate Tottenham-court-road if they could, but it is impossible. It is the great artery of the quarter ; and were it, in surgical phrase, "taken up," no other branches could carry on the circulation of vitality into the contiguous component members. It comprises several squares besides the one from which it takes its name. The frigid Fitzroy, the respectable Russell, the bland Bloomsbury, and the two-windowed Torrington, ventilate its atmosphere. A large portionof its inhabitants live as they choose ; an equally large portion live as they can. Eussell- square is the region of the first class; Eathbone-place of the second. Let us consider the first. Possibly nowhere else in London is the conventional mechanism of set social life so gravely observed. The heavy morning call in the heavier carriage—the raide routine of the society altogether—the grim grind of the dull dinner-parties—the belief that certain articles can only be procured at certain shops, and those the most expensive—the creed that establishes the importance of the to...